D.C. speed camera revenue yields over $23M in 2012, AAA reports

AAA reports more than 243,000 speed camera tickets were issued in fiscal year 2012 to motorists along I-295.

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Click on the camera icons to find out about each of the 10 most active speed cameras in the District of Columbia.

A new report shows the District’s revenue from speed cameras so far this year has nearly reached $24 million.

AAA reports more than 243,000 speed camera tickets were issued in fiscal year 2012 to motorists along I-295. The study shows drivers ended up paying $23,792,905 in fines during the same period of time, according to AAA.

Greg Petrucelli is one of those drivers.

"I just moved back here a couple months ago…," said Petrucelli, formerly of California.

The report shows that I-295 accounted for 28 percent of the record-breaking revenues that the city pulled in from police camera tickets in 2012, which adds up to nearly $85 million.{ }

“By its very design, most drivers mistakenly assume DC 295 is a high-speed, multi-lane highway. So they cruise along it at what traffic engineers call the '85th percentile speed.' That is the speed that 85 percent of the drivers on that freeway reckon as the maximum safe speed for that location," said John B. Townsend II, AAA Mid-Atlantic's Manager of Public and Government Affairs.

"In a cruel irony, DC 295 may have the look and the feel of an interstate highway or a U.S. route. But, as a matter of fact, it is the only numbered route in the District that isn't. And drivers who aren't aware of this are paying a high price for that."

Townsend added, "It's such a part and parcel of the city budgetary scheme and regime now that they probably can't live with out it. They're addicted to this revenue. You're talking about almost 200 million dollars a year."

D.C. police who administer the traffic cameras again point to fatality statistics. Over the last 10 years, there's been a 56 percent decrease in traffic fatalities.

Here's a list of D.C.'s top ten money-earning speed camera locations in 2012: